4:34
by Aoife Malfoy
Summary: HPDM Slash. AU. No HBP Spoilers. Sometimes you have to learn when to give up and walk away, even if it hurts…especially when it hurts.


**Title: **4:34  
**Summary:** Sometimes you have to learn when to give up and walk away, even if it hurts…especially when it hurts  
**Author:** Aoife Malfoy  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Status:** Complete/OS  
**Author's note:** Written for enchantedjae as a thank you gift for her wonderful bday fic to me!  
**Warnings:** angst, Established Relationship (HD), Pre-HBP,

The stained coffee cup slipped messily out of his nerveless hands as his dazed eyes stared unblinkingly at the sight before him. A thousand million shards of pain lanced through his body and centered on his newly broken heart. He wanted to shout and rage in anger, to howl like a wounded animal in pain and to beg for answers all at once.

Conflicted. Betrayed. Unwanted. These feelings froze his insides and the only movement he was able to manage was the tears sliding unnoticed on his fallen face. Endless minutes passed as he watched his lover of five years happily wiping away the remnants of a foamy cappuccino off another man's face--with his tongue.

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"Harry! I'm home! Where are you?" Draco called out to the seemingly empty flat. The sight of his lazy boyfriend lounging in front of the telly didn't greet him as it usually did and he moved to their bedroom.

"There you are! I was wondering where my favorite statue in the living room otherwise known as 'Couch Potato Boyfriend' was!" Draco said with a silly grin as he moved to give Harry a kiss, unaware of the stiffening of his boyfriend's posture when he did so.

"How was your day? Mine was absolutely horrid. I had so much paperwork to do at the Ministry, it was preposterous! Can't they teach house elves to do it? Oh! Don't get into a snit! I was just joking and don't you dare tell Granger about that crack either! The vicious woman would have my hide for garters!" Draco rambled on, completely misinterpreting the sudden pained look on Harry's face.

As Draco continued with the narration of his day, Harry felt himself become more and more agitated. He thought he could do this but he couldn't! He thought he could simply continue on and forget about what he saw this afternoon. To be the bigger person and forgive his boyfriend of his infidelity and just be content in being the man he always came home to but he couldn't.

Not even bothering to pretend to be listening anymore, Harry quickly got up and began changing his clothes in a very agitated manner.

"So then he said-" Draco, who had just noticed his lover's frantic dressing, stopped mid-sentence and followed him as he got his jacket out of the closet. "Harry, what are you doing? Where are you going?"

Harry took a deep breath as he turned around and faced his cheating boyfriend. Gathering all of his Gryffindor bravery, he managed to look his boyfriend in the eye as he stated painfully and clearly, "I am leaving you."

"I see that but where are you going? To the store? We need some more milk if that's the case." Draco said, completely missing the look on Harry's face.

Harry shook his head at his boyfriend's innocent request but forced himself to clarify. Cowardice was not an option. It never was. "I won't be back."

Shocked, Draco stared unblinkingly at the Gryffindor. "What?" He asked. Completely blindsided by Harry's actions on what he considered to be merely an idle Tuesday.

"I don't love you anymore." Harry said flatly, his courage wavering as he cut his eyes away from Draco's agonized face, unable to look at him when he lied so blatantly.

A sharp intake a breath, a single tear sliding down his porcelain face. "Since when?" Draco demanded hotly, hurt and saddened yet panicked all at once.

"Now." Harry answered quietly and this time he did meet Draco's enraged grey eyes. "Just now."

Disbelieving and confused, Draco shook his head as he tried to process what was happening. Harry, his precious perfect Harry was leaving him and did not love him anymore. But why? How could he? Unless-

"Actually if you want a more accurate time, I would say it happened around 4:34 this afternoon." Harry continued on, crushed by the wretched looked on Draco's face but still reveling in the sick rush of satisfaction this was bringing him. "If you want a place, it was in that coffee shop right around the corner of the Ministry where I was buying your favorite vanilla latte to surprise you with earlier."

"Oh Merlin Harry!" Draco cried out in anguish as he realized the implication of the Gryffindor's words. He knew! Harry knew and he was leaving him. "I am so sorry, Harry! It didn't mean anything! It was just sex! I swear it! I'll end it! I'll do anything!" Draco cried in panic, unable to stand the thought of loosing him.

Harry shook his head as he watched his lover's usually aloof composure crumble as he dissolved into pleas. This time his heart was not gladdened at the sight and if it was even possible, it broke into a hundred pieces more. "Did you ever love me?" Harry couldn't help but ask, his mind reliving painfully the scene he witnessed.

"Yes! Of course I love you!" Draco shouted vehemently as he grabbed Harry's shirt front in an effort to keep him where he was. "I loved you the first moment I saw you! I told you that, remember? I was just too ignorant to know it."

With tears flowing openly on his face, Harry gently pried Draco's fingers away from his coat and whispered softly, "Yes, I remember but somewhere along the line, Draco, you stopped looking."

"Please! Don't do this!" Draco sobbed brokenly as he curled into himself on the floor. He was reduced to begging but, a Malfoy or not, he didn't care. He was loosing the only person that every mattered to him because of some stupid mistake and judging by the sad yet determined look on Harry's face there was nothing he could do about it. "Don't do this to me."

Anger flared deep within his chest at this and betrayal's knife twisted tighter in his chest as Harry roared, "I'm not doing anything! You were the one who cheated! You were the one who ended this! You were the one who decided during that moment of temptation not to resist it!"

"I know, I'm sorry, Harry! Merlin! I'm a bastard! I'm so sorry!" Draco sobbed and pleaded again and again, still huddled in supplication at his lover's feet.

The rage died out of him in that one moment as he looked at his boyfriend's hunched form. His beautiful Draco was broken and hurt before him and he couldn't take being in the same room with him anymore.

"I would have given you the world." Harry whispered sadly as he memorized his beloved's face for the very last time.

"I would have loved you forever." He said softly before he quietly disapparated away.

_Finite._


End file.
